Of Catfights and Clintons and Cretins - Part 1

As we headed into the long Memorial Day weekend (which has more meaning than a day off and as much barbecue as you can pack in), there were at least four that got some/major play.

These stories were:

1. The so-called catfight between The View's hosts Rosie O'Donnell and the human fulfillment of "the dumb blonde" joke, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, over the purported issue of "whether Rosie thinks America troops in Iraq are terrorists"
2. How the Democrats "bent over and spread 'em" for Bush
3. Hillary Clinton "Exposed" As Calculating and Capable and how she just stayed with Bill for the sympathy vote when she ran for New York senator (and her worst crime, according to the Bushies and the media, is that Hillary WON)
4. Watch when a bird exacted some revenge by shitting all over The Commander-in-Cheat as he was giving a press conference telling us just how much he enjoyed making the Democrats "his bitch"

Notice any pattern here? Notice anything which seems like - except for #4 (divine providence, perhaps?) - a setup that Karl Rove could not miss (and should not, since it's much of what Felonious Rove has been pulling since he hitched his star to Debya).

[See Part II here with Part III here]

Thompson Out On Show/In As 2008 Prez Candidate?

With the happy news this week that NBC will continue the long-lived Law & Order TV series (one of my favorites and this from a person who watches damned little TV). there is also some very sad news, but sad for what it bodes.

NBC announced that Fred Dalton Thompson (the same self-important shitbag on the show as he seems to be in real life) will not return as Manhattan D.A. with the series.

Does this mean Dalton will try to run for GOP nomination for President?

Bob Herbert: "From Anna to Britney to Zawahri"

Bob Herbert certainly gets today's media - and those willing to buy into their brain drain - correct with this piece you can read in full here:

Have they buried Anna Nicole Smith yet?

Are you kidding? Ms. Smith may be dead and rapidly decomposing, but there’s too much fun still to be reaped from her story to let it die just yet. This is world-class entertainment: Larry King, “Today,” CNN, The New York Times.

Even the judge in the televised hearing over what to do with Ms. Smith’s remains is milking his 15 minutes, like Judge Ito of O. J. Simpson fame. In a burst of wisdom from the bench, the judge, Larry Seidlin, said, “Like a Muhammad Ali fight, sometimes you have to wait the whole 10 rounds.”

When we were kids we were taught not to laugh at people who were obviously mentally or emotionally disturbed. With Ms. Smith, who was deeply and unmistakably disturbed, we put her on television and laughed and laughed. Would she say something stupid, or spill out of her dress, or pass out in public from booze or drugs? How hysterically funny!

Then her son died. Then she died, leaving an orphaned infant daughter. Instead of turning away chastened, shamed, we homed in like happy vultures. Whatever entertainment value Ms. Smith had when she was alive increased exponentially when she was kind enough to die for us. Now she’s on the tube around the clock.

The story, as they say, has legs.

There are other stories out there, but they aren’t nearly as much fun. The Times reported on Monday, for example, that Al Qaeda is getting its act together in Pakistan and is setting up training camps in an area that, apparently, we don’t dare trespass in.

According to the article, “American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.”

The article went on to say, ominously, “The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.”

I imagine that there are a fair number of television viewers and newspaper readers who have trouble distinguishing the relative importance of celebrity stories, like the death of Anna Nicole Smith, from other matters in the news, like the reconstitution of forces responsible for the devastating Sept. 11 attacks.

Read it all here.